2017 in Review: Look at the posts you engaged with the most on social media

2018 is here, and we hope your new year is off to a positive start! Thank you for being a part of the global movement to help end poverty. For every like, share, “heart”, retweet, you name it, thanks for engaging with our content!

We were also very impressed to see how strongly you feel about preserving our planet. During last month’s One Planet Summit, several of you replied to the news of the World Bank’s announcement on phasing out financing of oil and gas exploration, with positivity. For example @RalienBekkers said: “Great, everyone should follow”:

For many developing countries, agriculture holds immense potential when it comes to ending poverty. And when it comes to Africa, which has the youngest population globally, we were happy to see that you too believe that the opportunities of the future are in food and agriculture:

During our #EndPovertyMosaic project, you proved that building WITH, as opposed to building FOR, is always more engaging. The mosaic came to life in a beautiful display of commitment from many of you that we can indeed end poverty if we work together:

When the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty came by last October, you showed the world that you were ready to raise awareness. So this is a huge thanks to all who changed their profile photos on Facebook and showed their friends that ending poverty takes a village:

Climate remained a theme that was strongly supported in 2017. When we shared how the GEF-supported “Great Green Wall” addresses the complex relationship between the land and the people in Sub-Saharan Africa, and helps boost food security, over 250 of you shared it with your friends, and more than 90 responded in comments:

Social protection, a system of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability, is a concept that has proven to be effective in many developing countries. When we shared how through digital payments, financial inclusion and public-private partnership, livelihoods in Côte d'Ivoire are being improved, many of you were very supportive, sharing this news with friends and writing more than 40 comments about it:

Conflict was a major theme in 2017. It is forcing refugees and internally displaced people in Afghanistan into cities such as Kabul, causing a strain on the city’s infrastructure. When we shared how host cities like Kabul can become better prepared to house refugees, we were glad to see many of you express your opinions on the issue:

Our annual Young Professionals Program is always popular. It’s no wonder that when our Human Resources team answered questions from you about the program on Facebook Live, over 4000 of our Facebook followers either shared, watched or commented about the session. Thanks for engaging!

Instagram:

It’s true what they say: when you educate a girl, you educate a nation. We were very happy to see that you support girls’ education in Nepal – especially when you gave all the “hearts” to our post about how girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school and includes ensuring that that girls learn and feel safe.

Our Annual Meetings always provide a critical platform to convene several world leaders and other stakeholders around the goal of ending global poverty. We posted in October that our next venue for the 2018 Annual Meetings will be in Bali, Indonesia and over 1000 of you liked this news:

It’s very reassuring to know that many of our followers on Instagram are strong believers in education and the potential it has in ending poverty. When we posted how millions of girls are now able to attend school regularly in Afghanistan, you welcomed this news with a lot of enthusiasm. And we thank you.

The One Planet Summit was a powerful historical moment for many world leaders to recommit to preserving our earth and addressing climate change. So when we announced that the World Bank Group will no longer finance upstream oil and gas after 2019, we were happy that many of you were on board. LinkedIn follower Edmund Brite Oppong wrote: “This is great! I expect that funding stream to be channeled into renewable energy financing going forward…”

Did you know that 2.1 billion people lack access to safe water at home? We cannot end poverty if we don’t address some of the most pressing basic needs of humankind, such as water. When we posted about this on our LinkedIn channel, almost 500 of our followers shared their perspective on the issue:

Our summary of 2017 (in 12 charts) was another hit on social media. Whilst we noted that the global economy improved in 2017, we also shared that the year had some of the world’s most unsettling and upsetting events and trends. One comment from Matthew Toy, one of our followers on LinkedIn, summarized it well by writing: “So, plenty to celebrate and a clear vision of lots more still to do!”